South Carolina wins inaugural Cobblestone Cup

If it wasn't enough that archrivals South Carolina and Clemson were playing in the second round of the Cobblestone Cup on Saturday, there was a trophy on the line at the Savannah Civic Center.

South Carolina scored two goals in the last three minutes of the game to break away from its instate rival and capture the first Cobblestone Cup with a 6-4 victory. South Carolina's Mike Jonas, who scored in both games the Gamecocks played, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, but Thomas Whitmeyer-Weather turned in the biggest single play.

Tied 4-4 in the third period, Whitmeyer-Weather circled from behind the Clemson goal to collect a pass from teammate Andrew Swint and poke a shot past Tigers' goalie Roy Murphy for the game winner with 2:28 left in the game.

South Carolina built a 4-1 lead before allowing the Tigers to tie the game in the third period on Alex Zeiss' second goal of the tournament with five minutes to play. Only two minutes later, Whitmeyer-Weather scored his first goal of the season to put the Gamecocks ahead to stay.

"It was pretty discouraging to be up 4-1 and then have (Clemson) come back," Whitmeyer-Weather said. "The puck squirted into the corner and (Swint) fired it right for me. I was prepared for it so I just beared down and did everything I could to get it in the goal.

"I'm usually the grinder that makes things happen, and that was a trash goal I was able to shovel in."

For the past two years, South Carolina has defeated the Citadel in an undercard for the Savannah Tire Hockey Classic and has yet to lose a game on Civic Center ice. The Gamecocks claimed a 3-0 victory over Georgia in Friday's first round of the Cobblestone Cup.

"To be able to beat Georgia and Clemson, the guys couldn't ask for two opponents they would rather play every weekend if they could," said South Carolina coach Brian Bauman. "It's pretty special and exciting. (The tournament) is more pro style or NCAA style, and they definitely do it right here with everything first class."

Georgia's ice hockey team scored less than two minutes into Saturday's third-place game against Auburn but was blanked for the next 57 minutes in a 2-1 loss to a Tigers' program only in its third year of existence.

Georgia freshman Stephen Bray corralled a pass from teammate David Bakin less than two minutes into the third period and gave the Ice Dawgs a 1-0 lead with a shot that snuck past Auburn goalie Miles Bishop. But Bishop was perfect the rest of the game, and the Tigers scratched out goals in all three periods, including a breakaway goal with just more than a minute left in the game by freshman Evan Barber that sealed the victory.

Auburn's Trevor Hightower evened the score at 1-1 with 8:17 left in the first period with a power-play goal past Georgia goalie Vince DiCarlo, and Yiannis Kapetanopoulos gave Auburn a 2-1 lead with 5:40 to play in the second period after a perfect setup pass from Sean Kemp. From that point, it was Bishop's show as he stopped more than 40 Georgia shots to preserve the victory only a couple of weeks after the Ice Dawgs defeated the Tigers by a count of 10-3.

"I think (Georgia) had eight goals in the first period in the first game, and I never wanted to repeat that again," Bishop said. "I knew what they were going to do, and I was watching out for what I knew was coming and everything else coming my way. It's a really big win because Georgia has always beaten us by a couple of goals or more."

Georgia was whistled for a slew of penalties in the first period, slowing down the Ice Dawgs' offensive attack and giving Auburn more scoring opportunities. Despite a decidedly pro-Georgia crowd, the Ice Dawgs were outscored 6-1 in their first two Cobblestone Cup games.

"We knew Auburn would come in fired up, and they came ready to play," Georgia coach John Hoos said. "It was a battle, and we knew Auburn wouldn't lay down just because we beat them before. We came out with the intention of playing a fast paced game and penalties really slowed us down."

The Civic Center was more full for the second round of the Cobblestone Cup after Georgia's game against South Carolina ended in front a nearly empty house on Friday evening. Georgia and Auburn played a game that featured several brief melees in front a larger and more vocal crowd on Saturday night.

"We had a lot of excited Georgia fans even if the crowd (on Friday) was a little lighter than expected," Hoos said. "But I remember the first years of the (Savannah Tire Hockey Classic) and look at what that grew into. There may be some naysayers out there right now, but I think this is an event we can build on now that there is some awareness out there in the community."